San Diego Mayoral Race 2020: Todd Gloria, Barbara Bry Face Off

SAN DIEGO, CA — San Diego voters will choose the city's next mayor in Tuesday's general election.

Assemblyman Todd Gloria and San Diego City Council President Pro Tempore Barbara Bry seek to become the successor to Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer, and regardless of who wins, a Democrat will occupy the mayor's office for the first time since 2014.

Bry, 71, was elected to the San Diego City Council in 2016 to represent District 1, which includes the communities of La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Torrey Pines, University City and Del Mar Heights. Bry, a La Jolla resident who has called the city home for nearly 40 years, worked as a journalist and tech entrepreneur before joining the council.

Bry said she will tackle the root causes of homelessness, including substance abuse and mental health issues. She has been adamantly opposed to development changing the character of single-family neighborhoods. She also wants to ban dockless scooter companies and short-term home rentals from operating in the city.

"My first priority will always be to keep every community safe and healthy," she said. "And I will always recognize, protect and respect the rights of our communities to resist inappropriate development."

She has advocated for an independent police review commission, but said defunding the police is a dangerous move for the city.

"I'm painfully aware that not all our residents, particularly African-Americans and Latinos, trust the police to protect rather than harass their families," she said. "But they are as vulnerable or more vulnerable to the impacts of crime and violence as others in our community, and every San Diego family deserves protection from those impacts."

Gloria, 42, was elected to the San Diego City Council in 2008 and served until 2016, including two years as council president and six months as acting mayor after Mayor Bob Filner resigned amid numerous sexual harassment claims. Gloria, a Mission Hills resident and a third-generation San Diegan, assumed the assemblyman role for the 78th District in 2016.

"San Diegans deserve a mayor who understands these tough problems, who has experience in running the city well, and the leadership and vision to move our city beyond business as usual," Gloria said.

Gloria said ending homelessness in the city is his top priority, with a focus on permanent supportive housing instead of temporary shelters.

"We cannot claim to be America's Finest City when thousands of people live unsheltered and dying on our streets," he said.

He said another goal is to increase the housing supply near transit and job centers.

"I'm a renter and I understand how hard it is to afford higher and higher rents, let alone to buy a home in San Diego," he said. "This is a reality for many San Diegans who work hard and still can't afford market-rate housing, yet earn too much to qualify for housing assistance."

Gloria introduced the city's climate action plan as interim mayor and has made following that plan one of his core goals.

Six candidates competed to become the city's next mayor in the March primary election. Faulconer was ineligible to run for re-election due to city term limits.

Gloria was likely considered the front-runner after the primary, which he won with 41.5 percent of the vote to Bry's 22.9 percent, but the race has become significantly more competitive than those results suggest. Third-place finisher Councilman Scott Sherman is a Republican, and many of his supporters are likely to break for Bry, the more conservative of the two Democrats.

According to a SurveyUSA research conducted for KGTV and the San Diego Union-Tribune in early October, the race is deadlocked, with 39 percent backing Gloria and 38 percent backing Bry. However, nearly a quarter of voters are undecided.

Stay tuned to Patch on Election Day for results.

Still need to cast your vote? Find the closest ballot drop box or polling place in San Diego County.

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Find more Patch coverage from the California 2020 election here.

By City News Service; Patch editor Kristina Houck contributed to this report.